Both make data unrecoverable. Both are GDPR-defensible. But they cost different amounts, suit different situations — and one of them makes you money back. Here's how to choose.
By Triset Ltd — certified data erasure & destruction, Manchester · Reading time: 6 minutes
Wipe when the drive works and the equipment might be resold or reused. Shred when the drive is failed, the data is exceptionally sensitive, or policy demands it. Most real-world collections use a mix — and both methods end with the same thing in your hand: a certificate with serial numbers.
Certified erasure software (NCSC-approved tools such as Certus or Blancco) overwrites every storage sector with random data, multiple passes, then verifies the result. It's done via a USB/cabled process at our processing point — the drive never needs to leave controlled handling.
Limitation: the drive must be healthy enough to complete the overwrite. A clicking, dying or encrypted-locked drive can't be reliably wiped — that's destruction territory.
Physical destruction — industrial shredding or crushing — reduces the drive to fragments, making recovery physically impossible. For most small businesses this is done via a destruction service: drives are logged, destroyed, and certified.
Limitation: the device dies with the drive — no resale, no reuse. Higher environmental cost (though shredded materials still enter metals recovery).
| Wipe | Shred | |
| Data security | Irrecoverable (certified) | Physically impossible |
| Device survives | ✅ Yes — resell/reuse | ❌ No |
| Works on failed drives | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Cost per drive | £5–£10 | £8–£15 |
| Environment | Best — reuse first | Materials recovered |
| Certificate | Erasure | Destruction |
The professional pattern (and what Triset runs by default):
Certified wiping from £5/drive · destruction from £8 — certificates always: Info@triset.co.uk
